Mobile Tools for Fantasy Managers in 2014

This site is generally devoted to specific advice for and coverage of fantasy football, from draft strategies to rankings, news, and blog posts on various relevant topics. But with the NFL season rapidly approaching, we’re devoting this post instead to some of the tools that may help busy fantasy owners to stay on top of their leagues, from the draft, through game days, to the playoffs.

In a 2013 survey of NFL fan viewing and stat tracking habits, Verizon Wireless found some pretty interesting statistics: that 59.6% of viewers watch games at home, and 10.2% watch on smartphones and tablets. Furthermore, 34.8% of viewers claim to be socially active during games, and 26.6% claim to be involved with streaming (watching other games’ highlights, checking scores, etc.) while watching. What all of this means is that fans are increasingly engaged with digital media while watching football, using phones and tablets to keep track of not just a single game, but the entire league on game days? And, while fantasy was not a specific element of viewership covered in this survey, it stands to reason that fantasy concerns play a significant role in all of this stat tracking and game surfing.

But which mobile apps and tools should be keeping you busy on NFL Sundays? Obviously, the most important answer is the app for whatever fantasy league host you use, be it Yahoo, ESPN, etc. But beyond the app you use for your own league, here are a few cool tools to check out.

RotoWire Draft Kit

Officially titled the RotoWire Fantasy Football Draft Kit 2014, this app is a popular annual installment by RotoWire, and a great go-to tool for draft preparation. It’s not one of the many apps out there designed to help you follow and manage your league or team once you get going, but focuses instead on helping you to draft the perfect lineup. Basically, the Draft Kit app lets you plug-in your own league’s settings and limits and draft accordingly, providing relevant information on players and letting you manage the list of available players according to who’s taken in your own draft when the day comes.

Team Stream

Though it isn’t designed with a specific focus on fantasy football, the Team Stream app from Bleacher Report is actually a pretty useful tool in tracking information about your team’s players. The basic point of the app is to be able to plug-in teams to follow, and receive extremely quick alerts on any news, either from sports news sources or from social media filtered through the app. It’s always fun for followers of a particular team, but it can be particularly useful for fantasy owners who are looking for the most up-to-date news on players and teams. It’ll get tedious plugging in every team you have players connected to, but at least keeping track of your starters is easy enough.

Fantasy Football Buzzer

The Fantasy Football Buzzer app is another source of information and updates that basically pulls its content from popular sports sites online. Still, it’s a nice alternative for Android users, as one of the Google Play store’s best tools for fantasy players. If you prefer a source other than your league host app for things like injury updates, team and player breaking news, etc., Fantasy Football Buzzer compiles all of this information in one place for a quick and reliable stop on your mobile device.

Really, that’s about it for truly unique and helpful tools. For most basic information, your league platform’s site and app should do the trick. While App Advice has some cheeky suggestions—such as downloading Venmo to manage money in the league, or using Evernote to keep your team notes—we tend to think most fantasy players have their own systems for these basic practices. For news and strategy, however, the tools listed above are worth checking out as we gear up for the 2014 season. Best of luck!